Scarlett O'Hara Dress

Description

The name comes from the fact that I made this dress out of a pair of curtains (green curtains even!). Even though it’s not nearly as involved as it’s namesake.

It was originally two vintage curtains (the fabric looks kinda 60s or 70s) I found at a charity shop. They had the ruffle at the bottom and I was able to preserve that as the hem of the dress. The top I just shirred to make it fit.

I’ve not had much success so far, I think my ancient machine may be the reason.. If I loosely wind elastic on bobbin the elastic doesn’t stretch when I sew. Do you think I need to tighten the bobbin so it comes out more slowly and creates the stitch whilst the elastic is stretched? Or do I just need a (better) modern machine? I’ve used so much elastic just trying to get it right! Any advice please :)

designsbyamber: That is a neat trick! I will have to try that sometime.

nadyalm: You might want to play around with the tension on your machine if you haven’t already. I don’t adjust it on my machine but maybe that has something to do with it on your machine (how old is ancient??). Other idea: are you using your largest stitch length?

How many rows of shirring did you use? It is really a lovely dress! I just passed up a shirred dress at Target because I have tons of fabric and elastic thread at home, and I m determined to master this technique rather than drop $17.99 on a cheap version.

The key to shirring is buying elastic thread (probably in the notions isle of your craft store). You hand wind that onto your bobbin and put regular thread in the top of your machine, and after that all you have to do is sew straight lines 1/4" away from each other. Use a long stitch length and be sure to back stitch at the beginning and end!

If that doesn’t help I will be happy to post a tutorial here, just send me a message!

Thanks for the directions to tutorials! I am definitely going to try it – have some fabric set aside for a summer top and really want to use shirring on the back to help the fit. Hopefully it’ll be a success!

3 Replies

Thanks! I didn’t wind it tight when I put it on the bobbin and it seemed to work well. Another tip that I got from a fellow Burdastyle member was to stretch out the previous gathers as you sew your next row of shirring. Sew it using your longest stitch length. Also, be sure to back stitch at the beginning and end!

Best is to wind it pretty tight! Once you have sewn in about 5-7 rows depending of course how many you really want to add then pressing the elastic thread area with a steaming iron pulls the thread closer together! Check my blog for other sewing tips! www.whimsycoutureboutique.blogspot.com/

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